Five London men were yesterday jailed under new anti-terrorist legislation for taking part in al-Qaida-style training camps in the New Forest and at paintballing sessions in the home counties. The sentences ranged between four years 11 months and three years five months. Their terrorist instructor, who dubbed himself "Osama bin London", and a preacher they recognised as their "amir", or leader, were convicted of soliciting to murder. Both will be sentenced next week.

Three of those jailed yesterday - Mohammed al-Figari, Kader Ahmed and Kibley da Costa - attended camps in Cumbria and a paintballing centre alongside most of those later convicted over the failed 21/7 attacks on the London transport system. The paintballing outing took place just over two weeks before the abortive bombing in 2005.

The five-month trial at Woolwich crown court was the first to test two new offences - introduced under the Terrorism Act 2006 - of providing training for terrorism and attending a place for the purpose of terrorist training.

The jury heard no evidence of weapons or explosives but listened to MI5 surveillance tapes and recordings made by a police officer who penetrated the London-based jihadist cell.

The conversations and films showed instructor Mohammed Hamid and his followers - Figari, Ahmed and Da Costa - performing what was alleged to be military training over a two-year period, initially at a farm in Cumbria and later at secluded sites in the New Forest and paintballing centres.

A fifth man, Atilla Ahmet - their "amir" and a close associate of the imprisoned Finsbury Park mosque preacher Abu Hamza - pleaded guilty at the begining of the trial to three counts of soliciting murder. Two others, Yassin Mutegombwa, 23, of Norwood, south-east London, and Mohammed Kyriacou, 19, of Kennington, south London, yesterday pleaded guilty to attending camps in the New Forest, in Hampshire, and paintballing centres in Berkshire for the purpose of terrorism training. Kyriacou also pleaded guilty to possessing information likely to be useful to terrorism.

The jury acquitted another man, Mousa Brown, 41, of Walthamstow, east London. None were found guilty of taking part in terrorist training at the Cumbria camps; those charges had been brought under older legislation. The verdicts returned last week could not be reported immediately until reporting restrictions were lifted.

Sentencing the men, Mr Justice Pitchers commended the bravery of the undercover officer, known only as Dawood, and said he believed the training had not been in order to commit atrocities in Britain.

"You are all here because of what you did, not because of what you thought," the judge added. "You did not intend to use those skills at the training camps in committing an act. [But] ... you cannot have been in any doubt from what was said at the meetings and in the form of the training activities that the underlying purpose of those camps was a sinister one."

Scores of potentially incriminating statements recorded during the police's Operation Overamp were played to the jury, including Hamid's reference to the death toll in the 7/7 attacks on London in 2005 when he said of the fatalities: "Fifty-two? That's not even a breakfast to me."

On the day of the attack, the court was told, Hamid had sent a text message to one of the 21/7 bombers, declaring: "Assalam bro we fear no one except Allah. We will not change our ways. We are proud to be Muslim and will not hide."

Attilla Ahmet, the group's preacher, was also heard to say in a reference to suicide bombs: "I just feel like packing it, walking it where it needs to be walked and then letting it go."

Hamid, Figari, Ahmed, and Da Costa had all denied the charges, insisting their activities were for fun and fitness. Ahmet did not appear in court for most of the proceedings.

Five of the defendants had arrived as young children in this country, fleeing poverty in the West Indies or conflicts in Africa. Four were recent converts to Islam. All had failed to build the prosperous new lives to which their parents aspired.

Hamid, a reformed crack addict, was the pivotal figure, the prosecution said, turning young Muslims into jihad extremists.

Attending a place for the purpose of terrorism training carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. Da Costa, who was also convicted of providing training, was sentenced to four years and 11 months in jail; Ahmed received three years and eight months in a young offenders' institution; Figari was imprisoned for four years and two months; Mutegombwa three years and five months in prison; and Kyraciou three years and five months in a young offenders' institution.